I was invited to an iftari by friends at Jazz Cafe a couple of days ago. Never having heard the name, I asked Jazz what & where? Told that this is a new place off M.M Alam road near Depilex & apparently to the hosts their buffet sounded real right good with around 30 something entrées at 1800/person tax inclusive. So come iftari time I find my self in a restaurant which can comfortably seat around a 100 patrons at a time. The interior is all wooden floors etc with shades of brown & subdued lighting, typical of the cafe decor these days. When it comes to iftar buffets Ive come across a sage at tossdown whose eating out in ramazan rules modified served me very well. Mostly at buffets people stuff themselves with the iftar offerings & when time comes for the dinner they find them over stuffing themselves. This especially in summer rozas ought to be a cardinal sin. Sehri is only what 7-8 hours away & you end up ruining somewhat your next fast with this MO. When the fast opened, I immediately decided that Ill take only a couple of things from the iftar buffet so I can do justice to the main course. I took a couple each of the chicken kebabs, chicken, voul a vents, chicken drumsticks & fish fingers. The kebabs were very good, juicy, not highly spiced & were tender but not to the point of falling apart as in other places. Voul a Vents (French for puff pastry patties), the chicken filling was savoury enough. Again not a lot of spicing as is the norm with chicken patties here. The pastry was light & flaky & unlike your normal run of the mill chicken patties in Lahore which feel like lead in the stomach (even from the best places yes) these were refreshingly light. My favourite of the iftar items were the drummettes. Crispy fried & spicy. You could feed me a bucket of those & Id be happy. As good as or even better (dare I say) than OpTps chicken. The finger fish was again quite mild. Honestly I really liked this mild spicing practice of this place. Perfect for Ramazan because too much spices like too much food can cause misery too. Going onto the main course, I had the grilled fish with lemon herb butter, the roast beef in jalapeño sauce, garlic rice, garlic fish & cashew chicken. The fish with lemon butter is absolutely gorgeous. Just think SnPs classic grilled fish with lemon sauce refined & raised to a fine dining level. I just loved it. The flaky flesh which just fell apart at the knife & the slightly citrusy tangy lemon herb butter sauce. I wonder if they have it on their standard menu. If they do then they have a really good signature dish here in my opinion. The roast beef was cooked to a medium well level. The meat was tender, juicy & there was no exercising the jaws when it came to chewing it. The Jalapeño sauce was by far the hottest thing I had that evening & being a chili head it was instant infatuation. The garlic rice were also quite good as was the garlic fish & chicken cashew nuts. They can be stacked up right next to some of the best in Lahore is all I want to say. Since I do not have a sweet tooth, I did not visit the desert section of the buffet. My friends were enraptured by the coffee mousse, a panacotta of some sorts, a fruits gateu & they also quaffed down a couple of tarts. Knowing them, it means serious goodness in the desert area. Coming to the service, the wait staff is very courteous & polite. The plates were taken off the table only after you finished (unlike a certain other place Ive stopped going to). In the buffet area the replenishment rate of the entrees was spot on. The moment they ran out of something within a minute the,dish was refilled. All in all this place IMO deserves to be tried atleast once & if they can keep up the same levels of quality & service they can give a few established fine dining places the run for their money.
Posted on: Wed, 16 Jul 2014 11:29:58 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015